Home robots at IFA 2018 prove our ‘Jetsons’ fantasies will have to wait

I came to IFA 2018 hoping to be convinced that a carefree, automated future was right around the corner — one filled with androids that would fold my laundry, wash the dishes, or at the very least open a bottle of pinot gris and pour me glass. What I got instead were vaguely humanoid chess players and tiny dancers. The aforementioned chess robot is from ITRI. It’s been trotting out its Intelligent Vision Platform — which can play board games, pour coffee, set and clear a table, and prep meals — at trade shows since 2017. The mechanical miniatures were from Ubtech, which broke a Guinness World Record in March by programming 1,300 of its Alpha 1S robots to dance simultaneously. Impressive? Sure. But not exactly what I had in mind. Perhaps I came with unrealistic expectations. I’d recently spoken with Sphero spinoff Misty Robotics CEO Tim Enwall, who very confidently told me that every home and office will have a robot within 20 years. (Of course, the Colorado company has a vested interest in the market — it’s selling Misty II, a robotics development platform starting at $1,600.) Also fresh in mind was OpenAI, which in July demoed a self-taught robotics system that can manipulate objects with humanlike, state-of-the-art precision. But the home robotics market seems to be in a kind of stasis, crystallized by Bosch’s decision this summer to shutter home robot startup Mayfield Robotics and Honda’s cancellation of its Asimo program. Bosch said at the time it couldn’t find a “fit” to… [Read full story]